SCOTLAND. 



itiority, and formed alliances with Ofbreth and JElh, 

 monarchs of two of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms adjoining 

 Scotland. Thefe princes entered Merch with a powerful 

 jany ; and from thence difpatched heralds to Donald, re- 

 quiring him to re-eftabli(h the Piftilh monarchy. Donald, 

 roufed by a fenfe of his danger, marched againft them, and 

 totally defeated their united forces on the Jed, a river of 

 Teviotdale. This viftory enabled him to recover Berwick and 

 all the territory to the north of the Tweed ; but his fuccefs 

 was of very (hort duration, for having indulged too far the 

 natural licentioufnefs of his troops, the Englifh took ad- 

 vantage of their carelefsnefs, fet upon them in the night, 

 routed them with great (laughter, and made Donald prifoner. 

 The enemy afterwards advanced to the Forth, which they 

 attempted to crofs in (hips, wheh a violent ftorm arofe, and 

 occafioned the wreck of half of their fleet. This event fo 

 weakened their forces, that they were induced to conclude a 

 peace with the Scots, upon the condition of their abandon- 

 ing all the country fouthward of the Forth and Clyde. 

 Of the Pifts nothing was faid in the treaty, and hence molt 

 of them, deceived in their hopes, paifed over into Denmark 

 and Norway. Donald, having returned from captivity, ftill 

 continued his voluptuous conduft, which fo exafperated the 

 nobles, that they committed him to prifon, where he laid 

 violent hands upon himfelf in the year 8j8. Such is the 

 account of Buchanan ; but Chalmers fpeaks of him with 

 praife, and fays that he died at the palace of Balachoir in 

 the year 863, and was buried at Icolm-kill. 



Conilantine, fon of the great Kenneth, now mounted the 

 throne. Being a prince of great valour and lofty fpirit, fays 

 Buchanan, he was anxious to eradicate the ignominy which 

 Donald had brought upon the kingdom, and to recover the 

 territories he had lolt, but his nobles difluaded him from 

 the attempt. He therefore direfted his attention to the 

 reformation of the public morals, particularly thofe of the 

 military and priefthood. In this reign the Danes invaded 

 Scotland, by landing a large army in two divifions in the 

 ifthmus of Fife. Conilantine haftened to oppofe them, and 

 fortunately overthrew one divifion before the other could 

 arrive to its affiftance. Upon this, the reft of the Danes 

 retreated to an entrenched camp, which they had conltrufted 

 near their landing place. The Scots, flufhed with viftory, 

 too rafhly affaulted the Dani(h works, and were defeated 

 with the lofs of their king and half their army. The Danes, 

 however, had fufFered fo much, that notwithftanding this 

 fuccefs, they immediately reimbarked for their own 

 country. 



Othus, or Aodth, brother to Conilantine, fucceeded him 

 in the regal dignity. His reign was Ihort and dilturbed by 

 rebellion ; and terminated, according to Chalmers, in confe- 

 quence of a wound received in the battle of Strathal. Bu- 

 chanan, on the other hand, aflerts that he was thrown into 

 prifon by the nobles for his tyrannical and licentious conduft, 

 and that he died there before he completed the firll year of 

 his reign. Gregory, or Grig, who next reigned, emulated 

 the virtues and achievements of the great Kenneth. While 

 his internal policy was mild and juil, he rendered himfelf 

 feared and refpefted by foreigners. The Danes having feized 

 from the Englifli the greater part of the country fouth of 

 the Forth, he drove them out of it, and once more eita- 

 blifhed the Solway and the Tyne at the northern boundary 

 of Scotland. He afterwards defeated the Englifh, who had 

 entered the weftern diftrift of the kingdom, and compelled 

 them to give up Cumberland and Weftmoreland to the Scots. 

 Gregory afterwards landed in Ireland, and having defeated 

 the Irifh in a battle fought on the river Bann, advanced 



to Dublin, which furrendered without refiftance. Here he 

 found king Duncan, then a minor, with whom he concluded 

 a peace, and immediately returned to his own dominions, 

 where he died in 892, greatly regretted by his own fubjefts. 

 Such was the life of Gregory, as reprefented by the Scottiih 

 hiftorians ; but the refearches of Chalmers have difcovered 

 that inltead of being a hero and a conqueror, he was a man 

 of unprincipled morals, an ufurper, and a hypocrite ; and 

 was driven from his throne by the indignation of his people. 

 Gregory was fucceeded by Donald, the fon of Conftantine, 

 during whofe reign the Danes made feveral defcents upon 

 Scotland, but were, in every inftance, repnlfed. Chalmers 

 informs us that the king fell, gallantly fighting in defence of 

 his kingdom againft a body of thefe invaders, who had pene- 

 trated almoft to the Scottifli capital. Buchanan, on the 

 other hand. Rates that he died during an expedition to quell 

 a feud betwixt the RofTians and the Merch-men ; and Boe- 

 thius aflerts that he expired in Northumberland in 903. 

 His fucceflbr was Conftantine, the fon of Aodh, the early 

 part of whofe reign was equally difturbed by the inroads of 

 the Danes. He afterwards engaged in a war with Athelftan, 

 king of England, who ravaged all the country as far as the 

 Forth and Clyde, and forced CoiJlantine to fue for peace. 

 Conftantine, however, only obferved it till an opportunity 

 for revenge occurred, and then, joining with Anlaf, one of 

 the mott powerful of the Anglo-Danifti princes, their united 

 forces failed for the Humber, and difembarked without 

 oppofition. Athelftan, who had forefeen and prepared for 

 this event, foon came up with the invaders, and after a battle, 

 till then unexampled in the Englifh or Scottifh annals, gained 

 a complete viftory, and Conftantine and Anlaf only faved the 

 remains of their army by a fpeedy re-embarkation. In this 

 aftion Conftantine having loft his fon, and moft of his no- 

 bility, refigned the kmgdom in favour of Malcolm, the fon 

 of Donald, and retired to a monaftery at St. Andrews, 

 where he ended his days. Soon after the acceflion of Mal- 

 colm, the conquered provinces of Cumberland and Weft- 

 moreland revolted from the Englifh monarch, who, fearful 

 of his ability to retain them, agreed to furrender both to 

 the king of Scotland, on condition, as Buchanan ftates, 

 that Malcolm and his fucceffors would acknowledge they 

 held them of the crown of England, in fealty ; the con- 

 dition was accepted, and Malcolm pafted the remainder of 

 his reign in reforming the adminiitration of juftice, and the 

 licentious charafter of his fubjefts. With this view he 

 made a tour through the whole of his dominions every two 

 years, and is ftated to have been paying his laft biennial vifit 

 to the north, when he was afl'aflinated in Moray, in the fif- 

 teenth year of his reign. His fuccefTor was Indulfus, who 

 formed an alliance with the Englifli, and enjoyed peace 

 during the firit feven years of his rule. At length the 

 Danes unexpedledly difembarked in Lothian ; the Scottiih 

 king marched and gave them battle, overthrew them with 

 great flaughter, but unfortunately periflied himfelf in the 

 ardour of purfuit. 



Duffus, the fon of Malcolm, next fwayed the fceptre, 

 and appointed Culenus, the ion of Indulfus, governor of 

 Cumberland. This monarch having held the reins of go- 

 vernment with a firm hand, many oi his nobles rofe in open 

 rebellion againft the royal authority. By his vigorous mea- 

 furcs, however, he was enabled to crufh the infurreftion, and 

 to bring the leading offenders to pnnifhmcnt. He after- 

 wards direfted his endeavours to crufli the banditti who in- 

 feilcd the counties of Moray, Rois, and Caithnefs. Many 

 of thefe were (lain in various flcirmiflies, but the principal of 

 them were fecured and brought to the town of Forres, in 



order 



